I just checked with UPS tracking and they said that my hive kits are on the truck and will be delivered today.
I ordered two hive kits from Brushy Mountain Bee Farm. They are in North Carolina so the shipping is steep, but they had the cheapest total price on the complete hive (Top, bottom, hive box and frames).
The scary part was that I ordered them on March 18, which I thought would give me plenty of time to assemble and paint them. It took three weeks for them to get the stuff to me, though. I will try not to order my beekeeping supplies during the Spring beekeeping rush again.
My first batch of bees arrive on Monday. This gives me 6 days to assemble and paint a hive. The first hive that I bought is already painted. I will then have three weeks before I get my package for the third hive.
I went a little crazy on this, getting three colonies, but I am afraid that if I got just one then it would die. This way I can still have 66% failure rate and still have one hive.
I am now looking for scrap lumber, the kind that comes in large packing crates, in order to make some supers. If I can find the cheap lumber, then my friend Skip and I will make some sawdust with the possibility for producing a few supers. I decided not to buy the supers until I have a living prospering hive. In a month I will know if I will have a hive that will make me enough honey to justify a super.
